Being sacked is the beginning of an emotional journey. Through a chaos of feelings, ways of personal behavior and reaction. From my own personal experience there seem to be a kind of a pattern. Starting out with a phase of being in shock, emptiness and a lot of why's going into despairing, frustration, anger and anxiety for the future. After a while a kind of acceptance related to the new situation builds up which moves into attempts to look forward, to do something forward-looking trying to establish a new setting. This development is challenged constantly and there are many relapses, some more serious than others.
Jay Capelle, Wisconsin USA very well describes this tour of emotions in this interview made by Associated Press.
I, too, know the feelings your are experiencing. I was laid off in 1992 after working for the University of Southern California for almost 14 years. The year before I had been "Programmer of the Year" in my department. The next year, I was gone.
ReplyDeleteI recall waking up for the first few morning, my heart beating rapidly, and I would think, "Oh, no, it's not a dream! I've been laid off!"
Gradually I calmed down, and over the years I came to see that losing that job gained me other benefits, including more time with my kids (I was somewhat of a workaholic, and now I prefer to work at a sometimes glacial pace), and began a new life that I found even more satisfying.
It happened again, years later, only this time it was a late life crisis, but I seem to have pulled through that, too, as I know you will come through this down period, too.